THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN

In his swan song, James Bond foils a Crime Congress in Jamaica. The tale picks up where You Only Live Twice left off., with an amnesiac Agent 007 going off to Vladivostok to recover his identity. The Russians brainwash him and send him to London to assassinate M. When Bond fails, the Secret Service de-brainwashes him and dispatches him to the Caribbean to kill Scaramanga, "the greatest pro gunman in the world," who munches British agents for breakfast. The story's high point finds Mary Goodnight tied nude to some tracks while an antique train engine hurtles closer and closer. Bond is bleached with so much brainwashing but many of Fleming's best devices are here; still determined Bond addicts face some embarrassing lapses in dialogue. But there can't be an all-bad Bond novel...Ah, no more asparagus with Bearnaise sauce, Mouton Rothschild '53, elegant Beretta .25, or '33 Bentley convertible, no more benzedrine bridge or baccarat, for 70 million francs, no more SMERSH or S.P.E.C.T.R.E., or even M. Double-oh-seven's deep as the Thames mud, where his Triple-X deciphering machine will never work.